Dangerous Dreaming
by planet p
Summary: AU; a sequel to "Charm".


Dangerous Dreaming – A sequel to _Charm_

* * *

><p>1<p>

Emily was starting to fall asleep, the barely-there hum of the engine lulling her into a false sense of calm, when the car jolted abruptly, slowing suddenly – far too suddenly – and came to an uneasy standstill. With wide eyes, she stared out the windscreen at the person who'd stepped out onto the road, consequently giving them little choice but to brake abruptly. If it wasn't strange enough that someone should be hanging around out here, in the middle of the desert, just waiting for a passing vehicle to throw himself under, what was even stranger was that she knew the person... and she had a weird feeling this wasn't really that person.

Then something even stranger happened: the man smiled and patted whoever's arm it was that was wrapped around his middle.

.

"You see, Agent Brandon, the Oracles are rarely wrong," Robert told her, with what she could have sworn was a smirk in his voice.

She just wanted to kill him! If she hadn't already been convinced he was stark-raving mad, this just clinched it. Big time! He'd had no way of knowing that car was going to stop, and yet he'd stepped out in front of it anyway, like the lunatic he was. Apparently, she was a little nuts herself. She'd dashed onto the road after him, after all, thinking she might be able to pull him away, but he hadn't been moving and she'd suddenly been struck with paralysing fear.

She supposed Bowman didn't know what that was: fear. He'd had it knocked out of him in a former life.

His heart wasn't even kicking up the smallest of fuss, she could feel that very well, holding onto him as tightly as she was, in fear for her bloody life. He was certifiable!

She heard someone open a car door and Robert pried her arms from around him. "And here he is, the man of the hour."

That got her attention. If possible, her heart beat harder. Oh God! She wasn't sure she could take this. Her brother! Her bloody brother was right there, alive! Breathing! She felt suddenly light-headed, sure she was going to pass out.

"What the Hell are you doing, Lyle!" a man – her brother, presumably – yelled, sounding pretty pissed.

Another door opened and- "Stay in the car, Em!"

"That's not Lyle, Jarod."

"What do you me-"

"I mean that's not him!" the woman named Em repeated, and Emily just had to look. Something about the woman's voice seemed so familiar. She snuck a peek over Robert's shoulder and her heart froze.

Holy crap!

It was her, yet... it wasn't.

Em had grabbed Jarod's arm and was tugging on it, trying to haul him away from Robert – he looked well, Emily couldn't help noticing; he was just what they'd come here for; things were looking up – but Jarod wasn't having a bar of it.

"Lyle, what game are you playing?" Jarod demanded. "How did you get here? And don't give me any of that 'the aliens beamed me up to their mothership' crap, either!"

Em finally gave up on trying to drag her brother away and tried something else instead. She swiped his gun and held it out in front of her suddenly, aiming it dead at Robert. "Drop it!" she growled, a deadly little edge to her voice. "You're not Lyle, and you're not fooling anyone. You're not going to convince me, so you might as well stop trying! Save your breath, creep!"

"Emily!" Jarod whispered loudly.

She ignored him, tilting her head suddenly, as though sighting her prey. "Who's that you've got there with you, stranger? A friend?"

"Whom I choose to keep company with is not of your concern, Emily," Robert replied.

Emily wasn't going to play this crazy chick's game. She pulled her weapon and trained it on the girl. "Agent Brandon, FBI!" she shouted. "Drop the weapon, lady!"

Robert put a hand up to cover his ear, wincing. "Much appreciated, Agent."

She smirked. "Don't mention it, doctor."

Em started to laugh, apparently finding the whole thing a great, big hoot. Then she started to gasp.

Jarod's eyes widened and he half-turned to the car, then turned back to his sister, at a loss for what to do and starting to panic. "Ah, heck!" He headed for the car, pulled open the door and started rummaging around in the glove compartment.

It took a moment for Emily to catch on, but when she did, it sorta floored her. This version of her was asthmatic. Well, dang!

"I- I can't find your puffer!" Jarod yelled.

Em's arm fell to her side, the gun slipping from her fingers, and she soon followed, falling to her knees hard on the asphalt.

Emily didn't move a muscle, her gun still trained on the other woman.

Jarod returned, stricken. "Help her! You're Empaths! Help her! Calm her down somehow!"

"We are not," Robert merely said. "You are mistaken, Jarod. We have come here for you. What happens to the girl is of no consequence to us."

Jarod stared at them as though he couldn't quite take in what he'd just heard. Then, in the blink of an eye, he'd bent down and retrieved his gun. "Help her!" he growled.

"No can do," Robert replied. "Any time, Emily."

Emily didn't even flinch before firing her weapon. The force of it sent Jarod flying back into the car with a heavy thud. He didn't get back up again. He was out cold, Emily assumed with a grin. Shit, she liked this gun. She liked it a whole lot!

.

Parker didn't see it coming. There was no way she could have seen it, she told herself, but she knew she was only half right. She should have twigged, should have seen _something_. The guy had offed a Class Five Empath the way other people stepped on spiders. It just wasn't fine and dandy. And then the guy had his gun on Broots, ready to blast his brains all over her. But he didn't.

Didn't get the chance.

She stared, physically incapable of blinking, for the life of her – or hiccuping – and watched her dead brother turf Lee's gun off someplace and grab the Sweeper, smacking him up against the nearest wall.

She'd always meant to get her own telekinetic ability under wraps. From what she'd heard, Catherine had had some ability. She'd always meant to investigate her own. Apparently Lyle had been lying when he'd said he didn't play that card in the Reaper pack, or else Bobby had just broken into his abilities.

"He's with them!" Bobby growled, tugging down Lee's collar to show the tattoo on the back of his neck.

"Get off me!" Lee hissed furiously, struggling without any real chance of escape.

"He was going to kill Broots and take you back with hi-"

Lee laughed suddenly. "Die, Centre scum!"

Parker whipped out her gun, about to ask what the fuck he'd done, when she stepped to the side and saw what he'd done, no questions needed. He'd stabbed Bobby with some kind of injecting gadget. She shot Lee in the leg, sending him sliding down the wall with a stream of cuss words, and moved quickly to her brother's side.

"Fuck!"

Lee continued to laugh, eyes awash with tears. "Your Reaper pal's smoked, Miss Parker. You can thank your company for that. They're the ones who came up with the AH serum in the first place. They massacred thousands of innocent people, if not more. The way I figure, this one won't be missed. Just another monster looking to go down."

Bobby yanked the needle out of his leg and fell to his knees. "Argh!"

Parker winced. "Fight it, baby! You can do it. I believe in you."

He laughed. How nice, now if he could just convince himself of the same thing.

"I shot you," Lee scowled. "You should have died!"

Parker's eyes widened and she stared at Bobby. "The fuckin' Mysterious Healer Healed you, didn't he? He can do it again! He likes me, I swear."

Lee cussed in T-Corp speak. Sure, the Mysterious Healer liked _her_. What a bitch! If his superiors hadn't asked her to be delivered alive, he'd have wasted her too. "He's not your Goddamn brother, woman!" he growled. "He's a fucking imposter! The Mysterious Healer won't give a flying fuck about him!"

"He's got a connection to Noah!" Parker hissed angrily. "He's got his fucking upgrades, you moron! If he dies, they die with him – and we never fucking find Noah's body, we fucking _lose_!"

"Sounds good," Lee chuckled.

Parker's eyes shot daggers at him.

"Ugh! Why?"

Parker frowned and moved around to Bobby's side, kneeling down in front of him. "Tell me what's happening."

"You have to help Jarod," Bobby whispered.

Parker shook her head. "How? Where is he?"

Bobby pressed a shaking hand to her forehead and suddenly – she just knew. The world didn't tilt on its axis, her head didn't explode in excruciating pain, yet she _knew_. She hiccuped. Empathic sharing never just worked like _that_.

She shot to her feet. She didn't have time for this. She was just hurrying away when she wheeled around- "Wait! An alternate _universe_! What the Hell did you take, Bobby?"

"Go," he whispered.

She didn't wait for him to tell her twice. The aliens had Goddamn landed and Jarod, as usual, had to be there. Only, they weren't there to make nice, they were there for him.

Typical Pretender. Idiot.

"You're both on drugs!" Lee laughed weakly before the blood loss and pain from his shattered knee finally took its toll, sending him spiralling into darkness.

Broots stood back and watched helplessly, not knowing what he could do.

Bobby's eyes started to turn in his head but he wasn't giving up that easily. He reached out a hand for Lee's but not quite reaching. "Shhh. Sleep soundly, my child." A glowing tentacle unfurled from out of his hand and wrapped itself around Lee's wrist.

"That's definitely alien enough for me," Broots muttered breathlessly. "I'm sold."

.

"Leave him alone!"

Emily froze and spun back around, taken aback by the sight of the little girl now holding onto the gun Jarod had dropped when he'd been knocked off his feet and thrown against the car. "Where'd you come from?" she wondered aloud. The kid had to be no more than – what? – eight.

"I'm talkin' at you, boy!" the little girl growled.

"So you are," Robert replied, slamming the car door shut finally, with Jarod still very much unconscious on the back seat. "Name's Robert. You?"

"Aretha!" she growled.

"Aretha." He nodded. "We won't hurt him, promise. We just need to... borrow him for a bit. What do you think about that?"

"I think _no_!" she growled. "Leave my uncle alone or I waste you and your pretty girl!"

Robert laughed. "Feisty little thing, aren't you!"

"My daddy's insane," she growled. "They say shit like that's catching. Eats people, he does. Right now, I'm feelin' a lil peckish! Don't think you wanna try me, mister! Shit could get messy. Real messy – real fast!"

"She's a cute one, she is," Robert commented. "Cute as a button."

"No shit!" Emily laughed darkly. She didn't find the bloody kid cute at all.

"I'm guessing your daddy's this Lyle guy," Robert said.

"Sometimes!" she growled.

"And he's an Empath, isn't he?"

She scowled wordlessly.

"Shoot her," Robert told Emily. "She's pregnant. The kid's Projecting. Fucking shoot her, Agent Brandon!"

Emily pulled out her other gun. The little girl howled but the blood-chilling sound was cut off by the cracking sound of a gunshot and then the kid was gone, evaporated into thin air. The gun she'd been holding hit the ground.

"What the Hell!" Emily hissed.

"Let's go!" Robert told her, pulling open the car door for her and walking around to the other side.

Emily put her gun away and sighed heavily, climbing into the car and slamming the door after her. Shit yeah! She couldn't wait to be away from this freak show.

.

Parker pulled the car to a stop in the middle of the road, staring out the windscreen at the woman lying clean in the middle of the road. She kicked open the door and hopped out, hurrying to the woman's side. "Emily? Emily!"

The woman gave no response.

Parker swore.

.

Emily Brandon stood stock still, back perfectly straight, letting her superior's words wash over her. She appreciated the praise but she felt sick to her stomach. Travelling across universes twice in one day had really taken it out of her. Right now she was looking forward to nothing more than going home, seeing her husband again, and relaxing.

Her superior told her he wanted her report first thing in the morning and she nodded. "Yes, sir!" She didn't even pause on her way out the door. The man they'd brought in – Jarod – was not her brother. He was that other Emily's brother. What happened to him now was none of her concern. The only thing that troubled her was that the Oracles had been right, that he hadn't been dead on that side too. What had been done differently that had meant he'd lived instead of died? Did they have some kind of tech they didn't have over here? She'd really have liked to have investigated that idea more fully, but her mission had been clear.

She walked away, lost in her thoughts.

"Good work, doctor," her superior said, but Robert merely frowned.

"Their Empaths are good," he said. "Very damn good. We may have cause for concern, before this week is done. Look lively, sir. I shall be... working." He turned and walked out of the office after Emily.

"Strange doesn't quite cover it, I'm afraid, Agent Brandon," Emily's boss muttered to himself. The guy wasn't just strange, he was verging on certifiable. Not that he could do anything about it if he'd wanted, he supposed, with a heavy sigh. The doctor had come with the highest recommendations from Homeland Security.

He picked up his phone to inform his superiors of their success. The Pretender was theirs at last. T. Co. wouldn't stand a chance with Jarod on their side. Those freaks were smoked.

.

Robert hugged his middle, closing his eyes and remembering the feel of Emily's arms around him, her heart beating madly against his back. It was a pity she was married really, because he sorta liked her.

He sighed, opening his eyes again. Even if she hadn't been, it would never work anyway. He just wasn't made the same way Emily was. He was made for his work, for his lab, and she was made for saving people, for helping them. She could have shot that girl dead today, yet she'd chose to shoot her in the shoulder instead. She thought she was bad-ass, but she was wrong. She wasn't like him at all. He didn't really care, but she did.

She never would have been able to stand his callousness and indifference. It would have killed her, or she'd have killed him.

It was a nice dream, but it was just that. It wasn't even a particularly realistic dream, though, he reasoned, they were the best kind. The ones you knew were plain crazy but held onto anyway, because they made you smile, for a moment.

But he would have to let go of this dream. He wasn't the same as her, he didn't get to dream. He worked with facts and known quantities, elements. He didn't work with dreams and fantasies. They weren't good for his work.

They had the Pretender now. It was time to get back to work.

.

"How is she doing?" Parker asked the Centre medic anxiously.

"She's breathing," the medic replied plainly.

Typical, Parker thought. No sense of humour these days. She glanced across at Lee darkly; he grinned back at her, throwing a wink her way. Scowling darkly, she made her way over to Broots. "What's shakin', Broots? Emily's alive. What are they doing with Bobby?"

"Nothing. They can't do anything. The Healers are scared they'll get sick too, if they try anything. They're just going to let him go and see if he recovers on his own."

Parker shot a glance in Bobby's direction. He didn't look well. "Fuck, I hate that serum!"

"I know what you mean," Broots muttered. "What's happening with Jarod?"

"Zip. Nobody knows where he is. The Oracles are all scratching their heads, wondering what kind of shit just hit the fan. They're clueless. All they can say is 'ask Noah'; 'find Noah and ask him, he'd know'."

"They think he's still alive?" Broots asked in amazement.

"They're dreaming!" Parker scowled angrily.

* * *

><p>2<p>

"My name is Jane. I will be your healer tod-"

"I know who you are," Lyle replied quietly.

Parker had decided this wasn't Bobby; it was definitely Lyle. The way he looked at her wasn't the way Bobby had looked at her, it was exactly the way Lyle had looked at her. Almost exactly, anyway, she thought. A little more David than Lyle, but he wasn't doing well and he was going for sympathy points. What was new? The bastard knew she liked David, in a sisterish way. He was a complete ass.

So the succession hadn't held. She was disappointed, but what could she do?

Jane the Healer – Sam's Jane? – sported blue eyes, hair the colour of midnight and smooth, clear skin with just the barest hint of dusk. She wore her Tower pin proudly, the same way she held herself, as though she considered herself a cut above the rest. Parker didn't think Sam would be interested in a woman like this, but if she was objective, she could see the similarities. The outward appearance she'd projected to the world aligned very well with that of this Jane.

Jane turned abruptly to her, her glimmering eyes snapping to hers, and Parker suppressed a scowl. "And you are?" Jane demanded.

"I'm with him. We're siblings. Twins, actually, but – shit – that's only incidental. We don't complete each other's sentences or any of that cutesy twin shit. Miss Parker. That one's Lyle Parker. Yeah, _that_ Lyle Parker. I'm not proud that we're related."

Jane turned back to Lyle. "Mr. Parker, I just have a few qu-"

"Just... just Lyle, darl," Lyle told her. "Mr. Parker was our father and he's... sadly no longer with us. Call me Lyle."

Jane scowled. "All right, Theodore," she replied.

"That isn't my name, darlin'."

"That's Miss Parker's twin's name, according to the gossip mill. Are you denying that you're her twin now?"

"Hell yes! I'm strictly Class Five, darl. You didn't get that name from some gossipy co-worker, Jane, you got it from Parker's Tower file, sneaky you. Empath, remember. I may not be a Class Nine, or even a Seven, but I'm not stupid. And guess what? If you've read Mel's Tower file then you'd also know that I'm not her brother – or her twin. In fact, we're not even related. So you can just drop the Theodore boll, right."

Jane laughed falsely. "For an Empath, I must say, you're amazingly charming."

"I know, right," Lyle laughed.

She glared at him frostily, turning to retrieve her tablet from her desk and typing something into the search engine. She looked up from the screen and narrowed her eyes. "Your Tower file says you're barred from Healing."

"Reaper," he replied. "Secondarily. It's sorta... what would you say? Tetchy? Unstable? Wasting Healers is practically a crime these days." He laughed. "Funny old thing, that. Back in the old days they wouldn't blink twice about wasting a couple hundred in one night, nowadays they're all – Aw, shit, we gotta go easy on these guys. They may end up savin' our asses one day. Shucks! Kills us, but nobody said restraint's exactly easy."

"You're an asshole!" Jane spat.

"Babe, you work for the Tower. You know what your lot did. You can't just close your eyes and pretend it never happened." His eyes hardened. "Just think about all of those kids," he whispered darkly. "I don't care what you say, what justifications you tote, that was not right. We're all human beings, and we shouldn't behave that way, no matter what. We've got to exist somehow. We can't be snuffing the little ones by the handful else we particularly want to die. All gone, no more. Done and dusted, babe." He smiled. "Never you mind, honey, I won't hurt you. I respect your kind, thank you Blake. Got somethin' to tell you." He shot her a wink. "Just quietly."

Jane didn't move. "You answer my questions and I'll think about listening to what you have to say," she told him coldly.

He sighed. "A) No, Janey baby, I have not been Healed before. As I have previously stated, the Tower believed, until today, that the risk involved to their Healers was unacceptable. B) Again, no. I've already said, but I'll say it again, if you missed it the first time, I'm not interested in hurting you. C) I don't believe there's anything you can do for me, at this point. D) Don't worry about that thing, it's not going to kill you. It's already," he waved a hand, "tsst, gone. Is there anythin' else you'd like to know, hon?"

She glared at him. "Your sister says you were Healed by the Mysterious Healer."

Lyle glanced at Parker. "I'm sorry, you. Understand, I didn't really have much choice. It was either this or... I don't even want to think about that."

Parker laughed darkly. "You don't believe in the Mysterious Healer?"

"I didn't say that, Sis. I said your pally didn't Heal me."

Parker's eyes flashed angrily. "Yeah, he did, freak! You'd be wasted, if it weren't for him."

"I..." he sighed. "That's what I'm trying to say, darlin', I a-"

"He?" Jane interrupted loudly. "How would you know if the Mysterious Healer was a man or a woman?"

"Um, because he Healed me," Parker growled. "Check my Tower file, woman."

"According to the Tower this Mysterious Healer story may be just that – a story. They can find no evidence suggesting you have been Healed."

"Except I should be dead right now!" Parker hissed. "The Mysterious Healer doesn't leave a signature, Jane. Shouldn't you already know that, being a Healer yourself? I thought you said you kept current with the rumour mills. The Mysterious Healer _loves_ me! That's why he Healed that creep. Not because he's my _brother_, but because _I_ didn't _want_ him to die!"

"Look, ladies, nobody Healed me, okay. I _am_ dead. Parker, Janey, I'm sorry. I know it's beyond gross. The Glamour's wearing off slowly, my abilities are... fading away. I won't be able to stick around for much longer. I know you wanted Noah's upgrades, Parker, but-" He glanced at Jane. "Maybe your people can work some o' that Healer magic. The AH serum degrades when you die; it doesn't stick around, and I am dead. I was when Lee... gave it to me. I'm just... possessing this body, if you will. Shit, it used to be an Empath, it's good for it, right? And it was kinda mine."

Parker stared at him with suddenly wide eyes, his words finally sinking in. She was talking to a bloody zombie! She'd _touched_ a zombie!

Jane's grip on her tablet slipped and the thing took a dive for the floor.

Lyle put a hand out and stopped it from hitting the floor with his telekinesis. "That's why my Reaper voodoo's up an' runnin', all of a sudden. No big mystery." He met Parker's eyes. "Sis, you'll probably want to leave soon. Do something for me? Tell the kids I'm sorry. I would have liked to be there to see how things go for them: Fin and Kimmy, too. They're good kids."

Parker shook her head silently. "You're lying!"

"No, Mel... I am not lying. I have no reason to lie, at this point. Whatever happens, I'm going to Hell. We won't be together anymore, after this. I am sorry." He smiled sadly. "I messed both of our lives up pretty good, huh? Sorry, you. Don't let them boss you around. Remember who you are. You're a Parker, babe. The Parkers gave this company Blue Cove and Blue Cove gave them Jarod. Don't let 'em forget. You're not useless; you've got skills. You're worth something."

"I don't know what you think's going to happen next," Jane cut in darkly, "but you're not going anywhere."

"Yeah, I am. No choice."

"No!" She lifted her chin. "The Tower have been appraised of the situation and have instructed me to-" Ah, so Jane had been busy with her tablet, letting her bosses know what was all going on, and they'd gotten back to her in a timely fashion with a counter offer.

"I don't think so, Jane," he told her. "You're not that good." She wasn't, but... His eyes widened, but he nodded quickly. "Okay. Okay, Jane; I'll play your game. But just remember, this is between the Tower and me. Nobody else has to get involved."

Parker narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about, loser?"

"Stay out of it, Parker," Lyle replied with annoyance. "Go get yourself a coffee. The Tower will want to question you. You'll need your wits about you for that. Amscray, woman."

Jane turned a grin on her. "Mr. Parker is right. The Tower will want to hear your side of the story."

Parker ignored Jane and glared at Lyle, talking quietly to himself in some African language she'd never heard before. It was probably something he'd picked up from Noah via his upgrades – some tribal thing – any number of Noah's carers might have been African given that he'd been housed in the South African branch. He'd probably picked his beads up from one of them. "I'm watching you!" she scowled, and turned swiftly on her heel and stalked out.

"Spooky chick," Lyle muttered, meeting Jane's eye. "For the record, I don't agree with this at all. This body belonged to me, before I died. That other body, it's not mine, and I don't particularly want it, but if that's what the Tower want, I can give it a go."

"You'd better give it a damn good go," Jane growled, "or your little lover woman's dead!"

"She's not actually my lover woman," Lyle pointed out. He didn't bother to point out that Miss Parker was Jane's boyfriend's Convergence partner, and that offing her would be detrimental to him.

"You have a child together," Jane replied, with a shrug.

"Thanks to our friends in the Tower, we do. Mel doesn't know about that."

Jane laughed. "_You_ know."

"Yeah, I know."

"Are you saying you hacked the Tower's files, Mr. Parker?" she demanded frostily. His file said he'd been a tech.

"No, love, I'm saying I Read you."

Jane backed away from him sharply.

"Hey, I'm sure they won't hold it against you, babe. I'm bettin' you're not trained to deal with high-Class Empaths. You've had a couple of lessons in Blocking, you scored okay on their tests – passable, in the very least – but you forget one thing: I've been an Empath my whole life. I've had decades to get my act together. Up 'til a couple years ago, you didn't even know you were a Healer. It's nothing personal, sister, but you should've agreed when they offered to send an Empath to accompany you to our meeting. I don't work by your laws, I have no shame. I do what I have to do to survive and succeed. If that means throwing out the etiquette rule book, then what the Hell – I'm there, babe!" He laughed. "Like, yesterday!"

He dropped the friendly manner abruptly. "Lay a finger on my woman and I will _personally_ rip your heart out," he growled in his best Reaper growl, smiling at her. He shot her a wink and whispered, "Promise."

Pressing some "keys" on her tablet, Jane pressed the Bluetooth device in her ear and said, "Any time you're ready. The Empath has agreed to our terms. We should commence Asap. Time is running out." She glanced over at Lyle and saw that his eyes had the kind of glassy stare she knew all too well. His Glamour was almost all gone now. She nodded. "Yes, sir. I'll be here."

.

Parker glanced down at her cell phone, hoping she'd have something to take her mind off the Tower's incessant questions and being practically told to "eff off" by her own brother. It was insulting and she didn't like it. They were supposed to be twins, a team. He had no right to talk to her like that anyway, she was the head of Jarod's Retrieval Team, not him. He could just drop dead, if that was the attitude he was going to t- Right, but he already had, she reminded herself.

She was sitting in the dining hall with Broots, not listening to the disgusting "mood" music and not really looking at anything either – there were no messages or missed calls on her phone – when it occurred to her to try for a chitchat with her mother, Catherine, of the Other Side. Maybe Cathy could tell her what was happening with the lunatic people liked to believe was her twin?

"Oh," was basically the extent of Catherine's reply.

"Oh?" she asked, in her mind.

Catherine took a seat on the couch opposite her, in her special room. "Nice sofa, baby."

Parker glared at her. She wasn't in the mood for any of her mother's "baby" comments, not after she'd just had to live through Lyle's snobbery of earlier. He always turned on the stupid "baby" crap when he was pretending to be all cutesy and sociable but really he wanted people to just piss off and leave him alone. Or when he was feeling sorry for himself, the creep. She was completely over that term of endearment.

Catherine waved a hand at her dismissively and smiled. "Oh, you don't mean that!"

"I mean it!" Parker growled. "He's wasted. Some idiot Sweeper shot him in the head, Momma."

"Are you sure, baby?" Catherine asked. "He's an Empath. He could be fooling you."

"Nope."

"How do you _know_?" Catherine stressed.

"His telekinesis didn't work, Momma. He wasn't a proper Reaper. He was more Empath than Reaper, and Empaths don't have telekinesis."

"Well..."

"I've heard that story too, Momma."

"Exactly," Catherine agreed, staring down at her lap now as though not particularly pleased that her daughter had heard the story. "I... I believe I may have had the... the... ah, a similar situation going on myself. I... had some telekinetic ability, though... From what I was told by William, it only activated when I was in a particular frame of mind, when my Inner Sense was interacting with my mental illness and the two were working together. I wasn't exactly in control of my actions, at the time."

"That's not the only time it happened, Momma," Parker told her.

Catherine looked up from her lap suddenly, curious. "It's not. Oh, I... I hadn't realised. Or... Oh, I must have forgotten. When... when else, baby?"

"I remember, at one point, we were having to change the lights quite regularly because of your moods. You'd somehow interfere with them and they'd break."

"I set a tree on fire once," Catherine shared.

"Not cute," Parker muttered.

"I was just thinking about things, as you do, and this tree outside my window suddenly just... caught fire. I suppose it was-" Catherine froze. "Hang on. No. That wasn't me. I'm sorry..."

Parker frowned, shaking her head. "What, it was me?"

"No. No. I... I was dead... already then. It..." She made a face. "Oh, now I'm all muddled up. Whose rubbish is this anyway! I... I've never written..."

"You did write poetry," Parker told her.

"No, not... This... this woman doesn't write poetry. She writes novels. Romance novels." Catherine narrowed her eyes. "Was Dorothy a novelist, dear?"

"I don't know."

"I see."

"I don't know anything about Dorothy. She's your older sister, isn't she? Lyle – idiot – thinks she was your mom. Idiot."

Catherine frowned at her. "He said that?"

"He told Debbie – or Silvie – that, and Debbie told me. D-"

"I know, dear. Mr. Broots's daughter. The one who's engaged to that doctor."

That doctor! Parker practically laughed.

"Dorothy _was_ my mother," Catherine agreed. "I don't suppose I knew it, back then, but I came to learn the truth as an adult. My father's name was Paul, I think. We never met." She shook her head. "I don't think we met."

"What happened to Dorothy?"

"She killed herself. She's dead. In... It was a long time ago now. I suppose Lyle knows all about it. Empaths have their ways. They say Theodore was an Empath. I should have..."

Parker shook her head. "Oh, that's just rubbish, Momma. Even if he had tried contacting you somehow, there's no way you could have known. You weren't an Empath."

"He didn't try contacting me, dear, he came to you." Catherine nodded. "You were... good friends, I assume, for a time. Only a short time because... I asked your father to have you put on medication, I... I can't say I was afraid you were sick, like me, because I realise now that I knew what was going on, but I was afraid. I was so sick, baby. My... my Voices... They didn't want the two of you being friends. They were so angry at me for sending him away. They'd wanted me to kill him. But you see, if I'd killed him, as they'd asked, like I'd killed those three Sweepers, that would have made me a monster, not him, and I wasn't a monster. I was... cursed, an unfortunate wreck, but not a monster. I loved you! I loved your father! I didn't want to die!"

Parker stared at her mother in shock. "You knew he wasn't dead? You knew what they were doing to him? To my... brother?"

"I knew he wasn't dead, dear, but I didn't want to know what they were doing to him; I only hoped it was awful, and painful. I needed to know he was paying for what he'd put us through those nine long months I carried the two of you. I was dreadful, so very terrible, but I couldn't stop. I couldn't make myself stop, even though I knew – a part of me still knew – it was wrong. Later, when I started to come back to myself, when I started to feel a mite better, I decided I had to find a way to atone for my actions. If I was going to live with myself, I would make myself a better person. That was when I remembered Margaret's son. The little one. Kyle John his name was. William had always suspected what had become of him, but when they took Jarod, it became clear to us all. Very, very clear. Jacob didn't like it, and neither did I. William had said it. He'd told Margaret to clear out, but she'd refused to believe it. She'd stayed put, and it had cost her. The company didn't care about her anymore once they'd got what they wanted from her.

"After... after they took Jarod, she left. William gave up trying to get Kyle away from the company because he knew that they'd never let him go, not once they'd gotten their hands on Jarod and they'd seen the wondrous potential he possessed. They wanted to see the same thing from Kyle, but it just wasn't happening. They tried their luck with an Empath, Timmy, but that didn't work out either. Timmy was smarter than them, he messed them up alright. We didn't know he was also a Reaper, but he knew. He took full advantage of his abilities to incapacitate himself so we wouldn't get the chance to turn him against his home corporation, so we wouldn't learn anything or benefit anything from having taken him."

Parker shook her head. "Momma, he messed himself up, as you say, not to stuff the company up, but because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to control his Reaper side. He was afraid of hurting people. That's why he absorbed all that energy. Reapers can handle electric shock, generally speaking; they can convert the energy into other forms that are useful to their bodies, but too much damages them. He was counting on that fact, Momma. He wasn't trying to mess anyone up – he was trying to _protect_ them!"

Catherine frowned. "Smart boy. I have to give it to him, I'd never thought of it from that angle before. Yes, that does make sense. How come your Lyle didn't think of that one?"

"I'm sure he knew full well what happened to Timmy," Parker said. "He was Raines's Pet, Momma! He had to have known. But he wasn't like that, don't you see? He didn't care who he hurt. Even if he had started menacing people with his Reaper abilities, he wouldn't have cared. He'd have been one of those 'I'm above all that; I'm a law unto myself, I'm so macho' kind of Reapers."

"Oh, I don't know," Catherine replied. "William wasn't that bad. He almost managed to contain me when I was in one of my moods."

"Momma, William wasn't a Reaper. He's a Healer, remember? He Healed you when you cut yourself."

Catherine frowned. "Yes, baby, I remember, but he was both."

"No. No. You don't have both. There's a paradox. Reapers and Healers are related. You can't be both."

"Tosh. Utter nonsense. They're only saying that because they don't want it known that their star Healer was both. That Nash character. He was both too. Michelle told me that. She'd heard it somewhere, and she told me. We were talking about Sydney and Jarod and that fellow who killed himself, and Michelle mentioned it. I remember how peculiar I'd thought it, at the time, but it had made sense, I suppose."

"Raines is a Reaper?" Parker asked.

"Yes, dear. Why do you think Dr. Brown is so friendly with him. Michelle and he are Reapers, like him."

"You know Michelle's a Reaper?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Catherine frowned suddenly. "I don't know. No. Wait... It could be that other woman. Yes, the writer. Sorry, she knows. I... know now."

"What writer, Momma? Dorothy? Are you talking about your s- your mother, Dorothy?"

"No, dear. The writer. That Writer. The one Sydney writes to on occasion. The one he says he doesn't like. Lyle has all of her books. He's her translator. I think... you may have read one of two of them too. You're a bit of a fan, aren't you?"

"Darcy?" Parker asked.

"Yes, that's her name. Darcy. She... she knows. She knows a lot of things."

"About you?"

Catherine shrugged, shaking her head. "Not just about me, dear. About a lot of things."

"But about you, as well? And... and somehow you know what she knows?"

Catherine nodded. "Well, I expect that'll be thanks to William. After I died, he... He made me better again. But I... I think I forgot. They gave me a different name. I left. I went away. I went to live with my friend, Margaret." She stared at Parker. "Oh gosh! Darling, I don't think I'm quite dead yet. I think I've just forgotten. Harmony – that's her name, that Darcy woman – she's afraid of me. She doesn't want to become like me. She _knows_! She knows and she can feel the sickness creeping back in, trying to take control again. Oh, Melody, I don't want it! I don't want it! Not again! I'd rather be dead and buried!"

Parker stood up quickly and walked around the coffee table, sitting down next to Catherine on the couch and placing her hands around hers. "You can fight it, Momma. Fight it!"

"No! No! That's why Dorothy killed herself, don't you see? She knew there was something different about Ben and I. She knew we were wrong, but she loved us. She wanted us to live out our lives and just fade away and die. She didn't want us having kids, but when she saw you, she knew she couldn't hate you. You looked so much like me, like _her_. But she hated your brother. I suppose he must have reminded her of Paul. She hated him so much. She still hates him. And she hated that other one, too. She tried, she tried influencing you, you know. She's tried so _hard_, but he's always protected you. She tried influencing you both. When it was too much for him to take, he decided to solve the problem by... by making sure she would never get the chance. She wanted you to..." Catherine looked away from her, tears appearing in her eyes.

"Ben. Ben is my _brother_! My _twin_! But we couldn't fight her – we just couldn't! She made him afraid of me! She ruined everything we had, any shred of family that was left between us! She just took it and ripped it to pieces because she wanted us to have a child she'd be able to manipulate and mould to her desires! She _stole_ him away from me! I _hate_ her for that – but she's so strong, Mel! She's so strong!"

"You're talking about Ben Miller," Parker said quietly.

Catherine sniffed. "Yes. My brother. Dorothy ruined everything! I... I was the primary, just like you are. Ben couldn't do anything. I completely, completely eclipsed him. He just... went along with it. He couldn't do anything else. Yours wasn't like that. He was strong. He wasn't going to let Dorothy win."

"Are you saying he'd rather have died than..." Parker couldn't get the rest of the thought out. "Because that's not what I heard."

"The company liked to hear that crap. It assured them he wasn't... enjoying his pretence too much. He pretended he liked you, but you never gave into any of that. It was very amusing, from their point of view. Everybody has this thing against Empaths, baby. I'm sure you've noticed. They scare people. If they're having a miserable time of it, people feel better. The other reason, I guess, he liked to play into that whole image was that he thought it... At first, I suppose he'd thought it might fool Dorothy, but then it started to serve another purpose also: it kept you wary of him, of Dorothy's intentions for you both. You see? It's a sensible enough line of thought."

Parker snorted. She didn't think it was in any way sensible, but if it served its purpose, who was she to argue? "I would never, never buy into that, Momma. Whether I knew what was happening or not! Never!"

Catherine shook her head. "I know, baby. But..."

"But what, Momma. I just told you my position in this – why does there have to be a 'but'?"

"You do like him, honey. You like David, don't you?"

"David's different. David's Clair's brother."

"And Clair is you, dear."

"No, Clair is a fabrication. I made her up. For Field. She's not real. I'm real. _I_ control _her_. If I don't want her to like David, then she doesn't get to decide otherwise."

"I see what you're saying, Melody, but it's not only Clair who likes David. You like him too."

Parker laughed, crossing her arms. "Oh yeah? And so? What's your point, Momma? Assuming you have one!"

"You're getting on the defensive, baby."

"No fu- Yeah, no shit!" she growled.

"Hey, I'm not having a go here, baby. I'm just pointing out that Dorothy got to you. If she hadn't, Lyle wouldn't have even considered stepping off that hospital roof. But you won – that time! Dorothy pushed a little bit, to see what would happen, then she left off. She didn't want Lyle killing himself; she needed him too. She let him think you'd won, but he didn't think that, baby. He knows what that woman's like. Therefore, he devised a means for you to channel those feelings Dorothy was impressing upon you in a way that wouldn't harm either of you. He let you come up with Clair and then he gave her someone to care about in a perfectly legitimate way, nothing funny or untoward involved, and you pulled it off, as I'm sure he'd been counting on you to do. You're a Pretender, baby. You're not just a pushover. You're strong. In this particular instance, you just needed a little help, that's all. You were against the idea of 'alters', and I can understand why, after what you went through in that place, but Empaths use them all the time to channel certain aspects of their Empathic streaming in ways that are useful to them and not self-destructive."

Parker ran a hand through her hair. "Suddenly, I feel dirty. Like somebody's bloody chew toy."

"You don't have to feel that way, baby. You did good. You fought Dorothy, and you're still fighting. I was never that strong. Ben or I together. We never found a way to fight her. I'd run away, come back to Blue Cove, and Ben would come down to see me. No matter how much I told him it was dangerous, he'd always still come. Come away with me, he'd say. Bring Melody. We can be a family together again. Mind you, he never had any untoward intentions towards me then, but I didn't want to know him. I'd run away for a reason, because I couldn't trust myself, but he was just willing to accept that. He couldn't understand that maybe I wasn't, and I could never tell him. I was too afraid to. To admit defeat, I suppose. It was Hell! I loved him so much, but I... I was always so, _so_ afraid of my reasons! I could never trust anything I thought or felt! I cut myself – all the time! I tried to kill myself, a couple of times. I didn't care who was around to see. I did once. I drowned myself, but you found me, and then Ben came out and William and that was that. He brought me back and I wanted to _kill_ him! I could have, too, but that wouldn't have been fair. He was a friend."

"An insane friend who shot you and stole your child and tortured him," Parker put in.

"William's not insane, dear, he's just traumatised. He shot me because I asked him to. He didn't want to, but the Tower wanted me out of the picture and I wanted them to think they'd gotten rid of me whilst I plotted my next move. What sort of a person leaves documentary evidence of their crime lying around for just anyone to stumble upon? It's not logical, dear. William didn't believe he'd be able to do it, but I believed he could. I talked him into it. And it worked. Partly. Partly not. I guess it couldn't be helped." She sighed.

"Why did he go to find Bobby after all those years? He didn't. Bobby was... falling behind in school, but his father, having some money, decided he'd find someone to help out, to help convince the school not to fail his son. Bobby was very good at Math. Very good. He just took to math as easily as the next person did to breathing. But, according to his school teachers, he wasn't good at a whole lot else. In fact, they couldn't understand his ability with math. It went right over their heads. They thought he was a complete idiot. He was always getting in trouble for saying the wrong thing, he was already on half a dozen different medications to supposedly control his half a dozen different medical conditions, and none of it helped him in the slightest. But he was good at math. So, through the natural course of things, the company came to find out about Bobby and they thought, 'Good-O, this one looks pretty clever. Let's have him'. They sent William and off he went. Bad, bad name for a town. Really bad name. But that's how that eventuated. William did not tell Bobby to kill his friend – Bobby was not violent – Elsie would have said just about anything to get out of having to face up to the fact that she absolutely _sucked_ as a mother! All William did was say to the kid, 'Alright, some bad shit has happened and you've run away from that and come here, to me – maybe, _maybe_, I can help you. If you follow the rules I set out for you.' Which is why he sent Bobby away to university in Virginia. Far away from all of that bad business, in a big, big town, a city. He was hoping, I think, that it would help change the kid's mindset. Set him back on the right track."

"And you know this for a fact?" Parker asked.

"Emily told me."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Emily told Harmony. They're a... a couple, I suppose you might say."

"Harmony and-"

Catherine laughed. "No, dear, not Harm and Emily. I'm talking about your Lyle and my Emily. They were a couple. For a long time, I suppose."

"Well, he's dead now. They're not a couple anymore."

"I would imagine not, no. I just wonder how Emily's going to take the news. She's very attached to that mad thing. Like you wouldn't believe. Margaret has tried shifting her interest away from that element, but she doesn't bite. At one point, I think Margaret was convinced Emily liked women. She, ah, used to drink a little too much and the drink got the better of her a lot of times. As you can imagine, I'm sure. Her friends at university were fairly open-minded about things. I think it was really just the one time, but that was enough for Maggie. I guess she figured Emily had turned against all men after Lyle was born. Anyway, Emily mustn't have been feeling well and her friend, house-mate, whatever you want to call it, decided it might be an idea to put her to bed and put her clothes in the wash, otherwise, she'd be going to school the next night in: a) nothing, or b) her nursing uniform. And then, when she shortened her nom de plume from Jubilee to Bilee, Margaret was completely sold. Without a doubt. Mind you, she didn't read anything Emily was writing otherwise she probably would have clued onto a few things, but I think it scares her even now. Why this interest in some crazy, homicidal boy who tried to kill her? Is she one day going to up and decide to kill him, or has that been her plan all along? Nearly four children later, and Margaret's still not sold on the 'there may be something there' idea. Me, I can buy it, but I'm a bit of an idiot when it comes to romantic notions."

"Harmony is, you mean?" Parker cut in.

"Hmm?"

"Harmony is a bit of an idiot, Momma. Not you."

Catherine's face fell. "I suppose you're right. Yes, Harm." She nodded. She sighed. "Harmony's going to be in a dire mood, when she finds out. She was really trying not to hate the boy. I guess she thought she might one day come and see the two of you; have a bit of a chat, if possible. She doesn't know as much as I do, and I don't think Lucky's ready to let her in on everything she knows just yet."

"Lucky?" Parker asked.

"Margaret. That was my nick name for her, back in the day. Lucky Charm, Charming, Lucky. She was my best friend. She was the first person who made me feel good just being me. My lucky charm, indeed! You understand, baby. You had friends too..." Catherine frowned. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up..."

"It's fine," Parker told her. "I did have friends, yes. Right now, one of my friends, Jarod, is busy devising a means of escaping the clutches of his alien captors."

"Pardon, dear?"

"The aliens abducted him. Or those people from the 'alternate dimension, world thingy'!"

"I'm sorry?"

"Bobby... Lyle... He said some folks had popped over from the alternate universe to nick off with Jarod. I headed off to find him, quick smart, but they were gone. Possibly, maybe, they had a magic carpet, but me, I think they took off with his car too. Jarod's... car. They weren't too interested in Emily; they left her behind. She's... sleeping, I guess. I, um, I'm hoping they won't make a big fuss out of it, if they clue on to who she is, but if they do, I'll probably just... have to accept that was my fault too. Twin moment! Lyle took care off Kyle, I took care of Emily; Jarod's gonna surely love us two. It's no wonder people make terrible jokes about us. We're not the most morally squeaky clean people out there."

She laughed. "Possibly, Jane will bust her out... If I threaten to steal Sam away from her with my incredible witchy powers... Yeah, I know, it's crazy. I don't know what I'm going to do, in all honesty. Just... tell Harm I'm working on it. And I did not know that Emily was Bilee. I'm a bit... hmm right now. I might file that away for later reference, under Spooky Shit You Probably Don't Want to Know Concerning Supposed Twin and His Supposed Love Interest. In the meantime, Cat, I think I'd really like to know my new-found nieces and nephews' names."

Catherine frowned. "Alright, let me just think. There's Lyle, of course, but he has an older sister. Then there's Hubertus and Aretha. She hasn't been born yet, she's only a couple of months along, so we still don't know what's going to happen there. Yeah, her name was Saskia. The older daughter."

"My friend was going to name her daughter Saskia. Saskia and Grace. We were both going to have girls and they were going to be best friends, just like we... were. Minus the dying parts, of course."

"You're talking about boarding school, in Canada?"

Parker nodded.

"Your friend, Mimi?"

"She goes by Emily now. That's her real name. Mimi was an alias." Parker smiled. "Ha! I was just testing you!" Saskia, that was Lyle's daughter's name. The one he'd had with Lin; the one who'd escaped.

"Testing me?" Catherine asked, looking concerned.

"What if you're not Catherine. What if you're that creep, trying to trick me?"

"This is your room, Melody. I don't think Lyle has any special powers in your room, baby."

"You don't _think_," Parker replied.

"Look, dear, I am your mother. Why would I tell you everything I have if I wasn't?"

"To make me think I could trust you, or that Lyle's really not that bad of a guy. I don't know. There could be any number of reasons, really."

"Well, I am Catherine, so you don't have to worry."

"A Class Five Empath's pretty spiffy."

"But this is your room, and you're the primary, Mel."

"You say that. You keep saying that. You want me to believe it, but I don't know."

"It's the truth, dear. I am Cathy and I'm not trying to trick you. In fact, I have something to tell you. Time to 'fess up, I suppose. Do you remember when you were a girl and you thought Jarod was your Convergence partner, but then it turned out that Sam was. You remember William going on about Residual Convergence? The Residual Convergence was mine and your father's. You and I hung out a bit and Jarod and your father hung out a bit, hence, when the two of you got together, you could feel something there."

"My real father?" Parker asked. "You're saying..."

"Sydney and I, yes," Catherine said.

Parker choked. "I was going to say Raines!"

"William and Edie are Convergence partners, dear. William and I could hardly have Convergence, in that case. You only get one Special Someone."

"It's not about that," Parker replied. "It's not a free pass to love. Just ask Lyle. He knows about all that rival stuff. He knows the T-Corp Scripture backwards and forwards."

"But it can be, baby."

Parker didn't reply to that.

"Don't be angry at Sydney, dear. He can't remember any of it. When I forgot, so did he. He forgot about us. The few things he have left are very innocuous, though I see why he feels this pull towards this writer woman, Harmony. They can't forget each other, and they never have."

Parker frowned. "Sydney talks to you. When he thinks nobody's around, he talks to you. I've heard him. He has these whole conversations with thin air." Yeah, and she tried to pretend _that_ wasn't all that creepy! It never worked: it still gave her the creeps. It wasn't like he was talking to Jacob, after all.

Catherine shook her head. "No, not with thin air, dear. He is talking to me, in a manner of speaking. Harmony does the same thing. She thinks she sees this imaginary person but I guess she's known for a while now that he's not imaginary. She knows she's really talking to Sydney. It's why she's put up with all of the fuss he's kicked up about her writing. Come on, dear, you've got to admit, why her? Why Harm? There are plenty of romance novelists in the world, so why should Sydney feel so opposed to this one?"

"She's my favourite writer," Parker replied. "I thought it was something to do with me, the interminable pain in the backside."

"No, it's nothing to do with you, dear. It's Sydney. He needed to justify his interest in this person, in what she was writing. He says he doesn't believe in love and he doesn't believe in Convergence, but he believes other people believe, sure enough. He tells himself he's upset at this woman for her overly unrealistic, optimistic portrayal of modern relationships, but, in reality, I think a part of him realises who she is and misses her. But he can't own up to that because there was never anything between them, as he sees it. He doesn't remember."

"Raines says it's him," Parker told her.

"He's covering. Can't let people know the truth. What would happen to Nicholas, in that case?"

"You're saying the Tower doesn't know Sydney's an ISP?"

"No," Catherine admitted. "William feels bad for Jacob's accident, I suppose. If he'd just been a better Healer he might have been able to help Jacob, but with him having been given the AH serum at IRIS, well, it wasn't worth the risk. Jacob knew he wasn't a real doctor, way back when he started at the Centre, but he let it go. He gave William a chance. William hasn't forgotten that. Aside from that, Jacob and Michelle were Convergence partners and Michelle and William had a thing, which, naturally, led to Timothy Valentine. And now we come back to Nicky. Nicholas and Angelo are half brothers."

"And Nicholas is my half brother?"

"Yes. That's right. He's your half brother."

"Like Ethan."

Catherine frowned. "Ethan's not your half brother, dear. He's... just your brother. Sydney is his father too. That's part of the reason your connection to him is so strong, the other being Lyle, your pesky Empath hanger-on."

"Sidekick," Parker grinned.

"Alright," Catherine agreed. "You don't appreciate the hanger-on comment. I understand."

Parker frowned. "I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to, dear. It was very clear by your sudden wild enthusiasm. Lyle does that too."

Parker rolled her eyes. "I did it first."

"Perhaps you did," Catherine agreed.

"Look, Momma, I don't do that twin crap! My twin's dead, okay. We both know that. I don't frankly care what the Tower say, they'd say anything if someone gave them a second glance. They're unconscionable egotists. If the dollar sign is involved all inhibitions fly clean out the window."

"But he is."

"What? Who is what?"

"Lyle is your twin. He's Theodore. A part of him, anyway."

"I know he has Noah's upgrades," Parker replied darkly.

"No. He _is_ Noah. Was Noah. If he hadn't been, dear, he'd never have been able to accept your Convergence in your place. William went over to Africa to get him. When you were put on medication, William didn't agree. He asked that I reconsider; I said 'no'. He quit, but James relented. He took you off the medication, William came back. I was furious for months. I wouldn't let you visit Annie anymore. I said some terrible, terrible things. I was awful. But something had snapped in William. Back then, nobody questioned Theodore's death. Not even William knew the truth, but he clued on. He clued on and recruited Michelle's help to bring your brother home. He didn't care about all of the progress Noah had made, how he'd made good for our company, at long last, all he'd cared about was that somewhere there was a child hurting. He couldn't agree with that. Kyle had been bad enough, but Jarod made it worse. He was ready to make a stand. And he did. He got Noah out, but it didn't go as planned. As we know. A lot of people died; Noah died. He destroyed himself along with those fifty-two people, but William and Michelle waited. They waited and a wonderful thing happened. Some small glimmer of hope, of personality returned. Timmy named him Robert Joseph and he was so proud of that little thing, but they had to send him away. They were convinced he'd never get any better. They assumed he'd go to some family who'd love him and look after him like he deserved, but the people who gave him a go didn't want him. He scared them; they always let him go again. And then the Bowmans found him.

"I didn't know it was William and Michelle. I honestly didn't. I was unfathomably mad. My only consolation was that the boy was dead. I loved it. It made me so happy. The monster was dead finally! I think it was Noah's death that finally allowed me to move on, to get better, in time. I didn't feel guilty anymore. I didn't feel guilty for bringing that monster into the world. I could feel confident again. It was only later that my guilt returned, when I realised how badly I'd behaved. Back then, I hadn't know anything about Empaths. Not the first thing. I hadn't known how people had used to kill their babies when they'd discovered they were strongly Empathic. They were so afraid of them, of the misfortune that followed them like a plague. They killed their own babies! When I learned that, I was horrified. I'd thought those people such monsters, and then I'd realised, how was I different from them? I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to do something, or just die.

"I _wanted_ to die. Some days, I wanted to die. I knew how I'd be hurting people, but a part of me couldn't care less. I couldn't do it anymore. Nobody else had to go through what I did, every day. I was so very selfish. But then I realised: everybody suffers. I turned my pain around. I let it be something to make me stronger, to give me a reason. I craved the pain. Physical, emotional, it didn't matter. It all gave me the strength to wake up in the morning and get out of bed; it let me love you just a little bit. I knew it wasn't enough – you deserved so much more – but it was the best I could muster. I was making do. William hated to see what I was doing to myself but he never turned me away when I needed him; he was always there. Once I'd dreamed up my wonderful plan, I knew I couldn't do it alone. I asked William and he said, 'Anything.' If that was what I _wanted_, he'd do anything. He wanted to help me. I guess he'd let some people down before and it still hurt him. He didn't just want to help me, he had no choice. He could have easily hated me – I took his baby away from him – but he chose to help instead. To not let Eg's life, and his death, have been in vain.

"He gave me something that was unfamiliar to me. He gave me someone to believe in, and he let me believe in me, in return. He believed in me. We were always going to be friends, William and I. I used to believe that. When the rest of the world was changed, we'd still be friends. You see why he had to lie. He made up so many stories to protect my baby, to cover up for my one mistake. He never let himself hate me, even when he probably should have. But he hates himself. He hated himself, but he won't hate me. He is so traumatised, Mel. I guess he thought the same thing too. We would always be friends. We'd always be there for each other."

Catherine sighed. "Promise me, darling, you won't bring any of this up with William. He'd deny it all. You can't mention any of this to him."

Parker frowned. "Fine," she said. "I'm not saying I believe anything you've said, but fine."

Catherine nodded. "Thank you, baby. I really am sorry I couldn't have been more. I'm sorry I didn't love you more."

"You helped some of them, Momma. You started something wonderful, something about loving who you are, loving your brothers and sisters. You did good, Cat."

Catherine smiled. "I didn't start it, baby. I just followed. I just needed something good to remind me we're never alone, we are never too weak. Until we die, we can _live_! I looked around me and decided I was going to do something, grasp something. I wasn't floating away into outer space, I was still here!" She laughed, tears welling in her eyes.

"Outer space," Parker repeated, smiling at her mother.

Catherine stared at her through tear-filled eyes. "Can I hold you, baby?"

Parker frowned, but moved closer to her, nodding silently.

Catherine put her arms around her and hugged her without saying a word. She knew how much she'd hurt her baby girl, but Mel was starting to move past the past, she was starting to live again. One day, she may even love her again. Catherine hoped so. She hoped her baby found something good, someone good to make her happy.

Maybe love wouldn't save the world, but it could save two people, if they let it. It could save someone.

.

"Parker?"

Parker snapped back to the dining hall, frowning instinctively. She heard her phone ringing and grabbed it out of her pocket. "What? Sydney. Ugh! It's been a horror."

Broots glanced down at his coffee and hoped Parker was okay. She'd zoned out for five whole minutes and that wasn't something she did on a regular basis. She was talking to Syd now and she sounded fine but he didn't know. If she was anything like Lyle, she'd prefer to hide it all inside. In fact, he knew for a fact that Parker was more inclined to hiding her feelings away than anyone else he knew and could call a friend. With Lyle, he'd always had little indications. When he was feeling down he'd often get a bit mopey but if the chance came up to help someone else out with something they were doing, he was there. Avoidance, Broots supposed that was what it had been. Or maybe avoidance was only one part of it. Parker didn't do helping other people out. She stuck to herself. She didn't believe in goodness the same way Lyle did. She didn't _have_ _to_ believe in it. She knew shitty things happened and she was a contributor to them, but she didn't murder innocent people for _fun_.

She could believe she was essentially a good person; she never doubted that goodness was real. She'd had some good times, in her life. They were few and far between, but they were real. They were very real, and nobody could take them from her. She had the kind of faith someone like Lyle could never have. He so badly wanted it to be true, yet he knew bad things happened to the most unlikely of people. You didn't have to be bad for bad shit to find you. That upset Lyle's image of the world, gave everything a sinister edge. Maybe Parker _was_ depressed – Broots operated under the assumption, anyway – but Lyle was beyond depressed. It was like Parker always said: fucked-up.

Broots didn't hate him – the guy was his friend – he just knew the truth was flexible, but only so flexible. He really shouldn't have been friends with the lunatic but he couldn't help himself. He was, sadly, one of those people you either hated or loved, and Broots, having gone for so long without any friends, couldn't hate the one person who'd seen him as something more than "pathetic".

Even now, people tolerated him, but he wasn't what they'd look upon as a friend. He was Parker's tech, he was that computer geek. Debbie loved him because he was her father and Silvie loved him because she did that, but he wasn't her friend, he was her boyfriend, her fiancé. He'd resented her, really resented her, bordering on jealous, angry hate. He couldn't forgive himself for that, not just yet. He couldn't call himself her friend; he couldn't blatantly assume she'd want to share her whole world with him. Maybe they weren't friends but he held hope that they'd get there, one day.

Sydney was a friend but Sydney wouldn't see him as a friend. Sydney didn't make friends, he made associates. Jacob had been his friend, his brother, and Jacob was dead. Sydney would stick by him, he was pretty sure, when he needed him, but he couldn't tell Sydney just anything, crazy as it sounded. He couldn't just be himself with Syd. He had to constantly check himself, the same was with Parker. He was always worried he wouldn't be enough, smart enough, together enough, worried he wouldn't measure up. With Lyle, he never worried about that. It was incomprehensible, he supposed, but it was just how he felt. The other techs could throw him as many dirty looks as they liked but if Lyle was with him, he never seemed to care. He could make the worst jokes and laugh at them too, and he wouldn't care that nobody else was laughing. He never had the niggling feeling that he was being used or that someone secretly thought him the biggest idiot. He was never suspicious that maybe Lyle was only pretending to like him – he was an Empath, after all – he just felt accepted. He couldn't explain it. If he tried, he ended up sounding like some crazy loser. It was just how it was.

Maybe it was because Lyle was an Empath or a Reaper – Empaths could Project feelings on you, he knew; he'd asked Silvie once and she'd sprinkled a little magic dust on him, he'd laughed so hard, it had been hard to stop – but he really didn't care. The way people looked at him sometimes hurt so badly he thought he'd rather not leave home at all, but he always did. He had to fight against his craziness. He was a downer, he always had been. He had to start correcting that. He had to find some positives in his life and run with them. Debbie, Silvie and Jethro were three of those things, his job was another, and his friendships. He didn't live in the most comfortable suburb, he didn't drive the flashest car, but he had his small happinesses. Nobody was taking them from him: he wouldn't let them.

Lyle wasn't around right now, that pretentious creep Bobby was, but Broots wasn't about to let that stop him. He just wanted his friend back. It wasn't like Parker had got her wish, either. Bobby was a creep, even she had to admit that. Her plan had backfired.

He saw Parker put her phone away and leant forward. "How's Syd?"

"Not happy."

"I can understand why."

Parker ignored that comment.

"What about Bobby?"

"Bobby didn't stick. Loser Lyle kicked me out. Jane was just _that_ alluring!" She snorted.

"Is he going to be okay?"

"No."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter," she muttered.

"It matters to me," he returned.

"Bugger off, Broots," she scowled.

"He's my friend."

She snorted. "You're banging his daughter," she hissed. "He's not your friend."

Broots met her gaze steadily. "You don't know what you're talking about, Parker. He is my friend. He was my friend before S... Silvie and I got together. Just because you two can't get along doesn't mean I have a problem with him. He's my friend, Parker."

She glared at him. "He's a fucking murderer!" she spat.

"So are a lot of people."

"It's not the same thing, moron!"

"He doesn't call me names."

"He's a lying creep. He only acts chummy to get you off his back. It's classic creep MO."

"Well maybe I don't care," Broots replied.

Parker threw him a dirty look. "If you don't fucking care, lunatic, then you're as bad as he is. Fuck off, imbecile!"

"Fuck off yourself," he whispered.

She laughed.

"I mean it," he growled, his gaze unwavering.

Parker frowned. "Shut up!" she said.

He said nothing, just held her gaze steadily. He wasn't bloody backing down today. Not today. She treated everyone else like shit, it wasn't good enough. It wasn't _his_ bloody fault her mom had died, it wasn't _his_ bloody fault she couldn't be with Jarod. She hated the whole world but she hated herself most, but she'd never admit it. Instead, she took it out on everyone else. _She_ was the loser! He didn't like thinking that way, but it was Goddamn true.

She lived every day like it was a life sentence in Hell and she acted like she couldn't do anything about that; she was so bloody innocent. It pissed him off. She attacked people blatantly and then pretended she hadn't done anything wrong.

Parker stood up suddenly, breaking their eye contact, and stalked away. "I'm going to check on the sociopath."

.

"Your liege is pissing me off. I'm about to shoot him, actually. Get up off your ass and deal with him!" She stormed into the room she'd left before the chairman of this raggedy, mobster branch (which she'd rather have _died_ than worked for) had sicced his Tower cronies onto her with Twenty Questions, and pulled up in front of the empty desk.

No Lyle, no Jane. What the fuck? What were they playing at now? Scowling, she stalked back to the door, trying not to think anything crazy. Jane hated Lyle; Sam did not do threesomes, there was no way. Cathy said Lyle and Emily were a couple. Emily would kill him if she heard he was getting around with other people without inviting her too, and Parker _knew_ her friend didn't go for that sort of thing. Well, she didn't know, but she hoped like Hell. Heck, she was Jarod's sister and Jarod was pretty old-fashioned. The good old-fashioned. She didn't have to ask to know that; she could read Jarod like a book, and she knew Sydney was way old-fashioned. At least, she'd always thought he was. She'd never imagined he might play around with a married woman, Convergence partner or not. Cathy had abused her witchy powers, had bewitched him. He hadn't had a chance of getting away.

Parker scowled, taking a corner at the end of the corridor. She didn't like everything Cathy had said. The bits Cathy had told her about being sick, Parker could believe, but she didn't like Cathy making out like Sydney was some... some guy who took advantage of sick-in-the-head chicks. Sydney wouldn't do that. She knew that. And if he _was_ her dad, that went double. Then, she knew how he was always denying that her mother had been mentally ill. He'd never once admitted it. Maybe he hadn't believed Cathy was nuts; maybe he hadn't been able to. She'd been an Inner Sense Possessor, like he was, maybe he couldn't say she was nuts because that would be like stabbing her in the back, maybe it would be like being a traitor to his own "kind". Maybe he'd even start to doubt his own sanity, if he faulted Cathy, if he admitted that her eccentricities hadn't just been her ISP.

Parker didn't like that either. She wanted to find Lyle and pound him. She'd show him hand-to-hand combat. He'd offered enough times in the past to "help" her get her Sweeper skills up to scratch when all he'd really meant was he was hoping he'd be able to cop a free feel. She was so going to pound him!

Maybe Broots was in love with the freak but _she_ sure wasn't! She wouldn't even care if he dropped dead tomorrow. The only thing she cared about was Noah's upgrades. Lyle wasn't her twin brother, Cathy was mistaken. It was the illness, messing with her head. She just wanted to believe what the rest of them wanted Parker to think. It was pathetic! Parker felt personally insulted.

Lyle was nuts. He'd told her some loonies from another universe had stolen Jarod but that wasn't the truth. He'd probably talked Emily into offing her brother somehow and then got her to shoot herself for the sympathy votes. He'd probably made her best friend just as mad as he was. But if he had done that, she was going to kill him with her own bare hands! She wouldn't hold back any longer. The world would _thank_ her!

"Excuse me, ma'am, but you can't-"

"Shut up!" she growled, flashing her ID.

The Sweeper frowned but nodded.

"I'm looking for Jane Armadillo!" she growled. "Where is she?"

The Sweeper took out his comm unit and spoke to someone for a while, then he straightened and met her eye. "Ms. Araldo is currently in the Morgue, Miss Parker."

"Which way is that?"

"If you will allow me..."

Parker rolled her eyes and swept off after the Sweeper, a dark look on her face. She didn't care what Jane's bloody name was. She already couldn't stand the woman!

.

Parker stalked into the Morgue and stopped dead, her eyes widening. "You loser!" she yelled, then dropped her eyes to the floor, glaring at the tiles. "You were supposed to be helping him!" she whispered loudly, physically unable to meet Jane's eyes without feeling the urge to rip on her hair.

"It's okay."

Parker lifted her eyes from the floor in a snap, glaring at this woman who wasn't even Jane. It was not fucking okay! Courtland was going to _kill_ her! "Fuck you!" she hissed, going for her gun.

The woman placed a hand over hers. "It's okay, Sis. I'm fine. Honey, unfortunately, not so fine."

Parker choked, pulling her hand away from the other woman's. "Fuck off!"

"Really?" The woman shrugged, turning to do just that.

Parker grabbed her arm and pulled her back around to face her, disgust making her stomach flip over. Ugh! She was tripping, right? This was some game the Tower were playing.

"What?" Honey asked. "You wanna get ice-cream? We can get sprinkles. Honey's not diabetic."

Parker let go of the woman's arm, afraid she was going to throw up right then and there.

"What's wrong, Sis? You look pale. I mean, paler than usual. Is your ulcer behaving badly again?"

"Fuck you!" Parker hissed, bending over and taking deep breaths. "You lot are as fucked-up as each other!"

Honey chewed on her thumbnail half-heartedly and shrugged again. She put her hand down and hummed Anouk's "R U Kiddin' Me", staring at Parker with a bored expression. Finally, she sighed heavily. "Come on, Sis!" she whined. "Let's get ice-cream! I haven't had it before. Mmm!"

Parker straightened up, at last, glaring at her.

"So can we?" Honey asked hopefully, picking at her thumbnail.

Parker stared at the Barbie pink nail polish that didn't go with the woman's honey-coloured skin or honey-coloured hair. She was wearing a hospital gown, Med Space-issue. It wasn't green, it was blue. Parker didn't like that. Med Space was green, not blue. _Her_ Med Space! Honey's hair was probably dyed, she thought, wondering what garish name they'd have given to the dye. Honeycomb Heaven, Sundae Scream?

She snorted. God, Lyle had no compunction whatsoever, did he? She grabbed Honey's hand and tugged her along behind her. Honey stumbled and picked up her feet, as though unused to getting around in her body. Parker felt like a bloody fool and just hoped this wasn't some huge, terribly funny joke on the part of the Tower. If it was, she was going to shoot someone!

As they waited for the elevator to take them to the dining hall, Honey sang "Hanya Cinta Ya Bisa", contemplating the elevator buttons with wide brown eyes. "Honey has a nice singing voice," she commented.

Parker didn't bother responding to that. Honey was also curvy. Guys would be hitting on her in the blink of an eye. Parker could just imagine how that would go down. She'd be laughing all the way from here until next year.

The elevator reached their destination and the doors opened. Parker stalked out without waiting for Honey to catch her up, walking right up to Broots and snapping, "Don't!"

"What? What did I do?" He frowned when he noticed Honey stop beside Parker, the other woman staring at her expectantly.

"I am not going to hold your fucking hand, Lyle!" Parker growled.

Honey pouted sadly.

Parker slapped her arm. "Cut it the fuck out! It's not funny anymore!"

Honey smiled brightly and started singing "Pernikahan Dini", complete with dorky dance moves.

"I hate you!" Parker hissed, as several guys stopped to stare.

"Parker?"

She ignored Broots and dropped her face into her hands. "I really hate you!"

Honey waved to the guys and they finally came back to their senses and moved off, one of them waving back before his pal grabbed his arm and made a cutting motion across his throat. The chick was with those Blue Cove people – which equalled off-limits. All those Blue Cove people were nuts.

Honey smiled at the guys happily and turned to stare at Broots. "What's up?"

Broots made a face. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing. I'm just waiting for Sis to snap out of Major Freak Out mode so we can get ice-cream." She sighed heavily. "Got a request for a song, Broots?"

He seriously considered that for a moment but he didn't have the chance to say anything because Parker grabbed Honey's arm and dragged her away with her.

"You're evil," she told Honey darkly.

Honey grinned. "Aw! But you still love me!"

"Sure, hon, I'd love to unload a clip into you, freak!" Parker chimed happily.

Honey smiled back at her, tucking her hair behind her ear with a hand. "Do you want vanilla or chocolate? Can we get both?"

"Can we get cyanide?" Parker growled.

Honey frowned. "I don't think so."

"Retard!" Parker hissed.

Honey untucked the hair from behind her ear and smelt it.

Parker slapped her hand loudly. "You're disgusting!" She leant closer and smelt the woman's hair, snorted.

"Bubble bath?" Honey wondered aloud.

Parker rolled her eyes. "Gee, genius, you're like, the _bomb_!"

"What has she got that I don't have? Is it the way she looks at you, laughs with you?"

Parker glared at her. "Cut it out or I _will_ shoot you!"

"How could an angel break my heart? Nah, nah nah-nah nah nah nah nah nah-"

Parker pointed a finger at her sharply. "Last warning, Lyle!"

"What has she got that I don't have? What has she got that I don't have? What has she got that I don't have? Baby, baby, yeah! Oooh yeah!"

Parker grabbed her hair and tugged on it sharply.

Honey stopped smiling and shut up, staring at Parker in pained outrage.

Parker laughed, nodding. "Yeah! Remember that! No more American Idol antics, freak."

"Those _nah_s were confusing me anyway," Honey whispered sadly. Assimilating to a new body was tough, but when everything she did got Parker's heckles up, it was even tougher.

Parker glared at her. They walked up to the counter silently and Parker had a look at the desserts on offer. "Two of those." She pointed to the chocolate ice-cream.

The woman frowned at Honey. "Your girlfriend's mad at you, huh?"

Parker choked. "She is not my girlfriend!" she spat, with barely restrained hysteria.

"Whatever you say," the young woman replied, shrugging a shoulder. "You're that Parker woman, right? Yeah, I thought so. Heard you hate men. It's not a hard leap to make."

"I do not hate men," Parker told her stiffly.

"Sure."

Parker glared at Honey hatefully.

Honey grinned and started to cough.

Parked backed away, into the glass cooler unit displaying the desserts.

Honey moaned and swayed. She bent down and sat down on the floor, looking ill. "I don't feel so good," she told Parker quietly.

Parker unglued herself from the side of the cooler and frowned. "What? What was that? I didn't hear you, doll?"

"I don't feel so good," Honey repeated.

"You're putting it on," Parker dismissed, though even she had to admit Honey was looking paler than usual.

Honey coughed again and got sooky-looking eyes, pressing a hand to her stomach painfully.

A Sweeper walked over and stared down at her. "What seems to be the problem here, ma'am?"

"I don't feel so good," Honey told the Sweeper.

He laughed. "Join the queue, honey cakes! What's your name?"

"Honey Rose."

He laughed again. "Not shit, Honey! You some kind of stripper?"

Honey sniffed, wiping her eye with the back of her hand. "Can you please call Jane?"

"Let me guess, Candy Jane?" He laughed.

"Jane Araldo," Honey whispered, clutching her stomach again.

The Sweeper held out his hand. "ID, Ms. Rose."

"I don't have any ID," Honey moaned. "They took it off me when I died."

"I'm sure," the Sweeper replied. "Believe me, Honey, I've heard them _all_ before. I have even heard that one a couple o' times."

"Dane," the caf girl interrupted, "I think she means it. Call this Jane chick and drop the macho crap. Or.. the other way 'round. Whatever. Just call Candy Jane, for God sake!"

He laughed. "You call her, Petra."

"Do you want me to dump this ice-cream over your head?" Petra scowled.

"Bring it on, caf girl!"

She glared at him and shook her head. "Whatever, Dane. If she dies, it's on you." She stomped away to serve another customer, leaving Parker with two bowls of chocolate ice-cream.

Honey started to cry.

Dane glanced down at her and sighed heavily. "Araldo, right?"

Honey nodded mutely, tears pouring down her face.

He grabbed his comm unit. "This is Dane. I repeat, this is Dane. Respond. We have a Sapphire Asa. Follow up requested Asap. Dane out." He glanced back down at Honey, whistling for a moment. He sighed. "Hey, Honey. You with anyone?"

"She's with me!" Parker growled, shooting the guy a dirty look. She lowered her voice and muttered, "Creep!"

Dane laughed and held his hands up, palms out. "Whoa. Cool your jets, girly! I'm just asking, is all."

"Quit fuckin' asking pointless questions and get my friend some help!" Parker scowled.

He shrugged. "I called Med Space, didn't I?"

"I don't know what you fucking said!" she spat.

"Wash your mouth out, will you?" he commented.

Parker's eyes flashed darkly but she refrained from dropping the bowls in her hands and grabbing her gun. The guy pissed her off!

Broots walked over and Parker shoved the bowls at him, walking over to Honey and kneeling down beside her. "What's wrong, Lyle? What hurts?"

"I don't know," Honey whispered painfully. "I'm not used to this body."

Parker almost suggested that Honey might have been allergic to bubble bath but that didn't make sense. If the woman was allergic to the stuff she'd hardly have washed her hair with it.

Jane appeared a couple of minutes later. "Get up," she commanded, waving a hand to Dane. He walked off. "I said, 'Get up', Honey! I am not getting down there on the floor with you, you can believe me when I say that! I'm not some animal. Get up or die down there!"

Parker had to fight very hard not to jump to her feet and slap that woman. The only thing holding her back was the thought of Sam's angry face. She did not want Sam getting involved in this whole mangled business. "Come on, you," she said to Honey, standing up and grabbing her hand. She helped Honey to her feet slowly.

Jane walked over and placed a hand to Honey's forehead, pushing her head back roughly. Jane's eyes flashed and she growled. "Shoddy Bama crap!" she hissed.

Parker frowned. "What? Did you just say this woman's from Bama? You didn't Heal her yourself, Jane?"

Jane laughed. "Why the Hell would I have Healed her?" she demanded amusedly. "She's not Tower. I don't touch anybody less than Tower-level. I don't even get started with these branch goons. They're bumbling idiots, buffoons! They walk straight into trouble and pull a face when there's a minimum of gunfire. They think if they take a bullet on the job the company will put their pay up. They're insane and unreliable. I don't deal with fools, thank you!"

"Scratch what my brother said about respecting you!" Parker hissed.

Jane pulled her hand from Honey's head and pushed her back, into Parker. "You Heal her then!" she spat. "No, fuck it, get your wonderful _Mysterious Healer_ to do it for you!" She turned about swiftly and strode off.

"Get back here!" Parker yelled after her. "_HEY!_"

A few minutes later, they were joined by another Healer. A man, this time. He frowned and led them over to a table, indicating a chair he'd just pulled out. "Please sit down, Miss," he said to Honey. He didn't apologise for Jane or even make mention of her unacceptable behaviour. He placed his hand on Honey's head and said, "Oh, whoa! That's... that's really something, isn't it?"

"What's wrong?" Parker asked, feeling like a bloody idiot for even having to ask.

"Your friend here has cancer," the Healer told her. "I'm afraid there's not much I can do. It's pretty advanced."

"She has what?" Parker asked.

"Cancer," the Healer repeated, completely missing the anger in Parker's tone.

Parker scowled. "How is that possible?" she growled.

"Well..." The man sighed. He glanced at Honey sympathetically. "I guess you hoped they'd have sorted it all out, huh? I'm sorry, honey, but it doesn't always work that way. I know you've been in a coma for a while and you've just woken up, but I'm sorry, I don't think it's going to work out, love."

Honey started to cry. "It's not cancer," she said shakily, her voice breaking in the middle. "They were testing a new drug on me. A new prototype serum." She coughed, plastering a hand over her mouth. "The... AH... s-serum..."

The Healer turned chalk white.

"I'm sorry. I didn't... I didn't know..." Honey gasped. She coughed and blood spilled out of her mouth, running down her chin onto her hospital gown. She doubled over in pain.

The Healer leaped back, screaming loudly. "Sweepers!" he shouted. "Sweepers! Detain this woman at once!"

Honey lurched out of her seat, falling to the floor on her knees, more blood spilling onto the floor. "Janey!"

Parker felt like snapping, Fuck Jane!, but she resisted. She just couldn't see Bama stooping to these lows, to killing their own to get results. And a Tower doctor, at that! It was unthinkable.

.

"Okay, okay, okay. Honey, we're gonna get you fixed up, sweetheart. Sunday here is going to-"

"You can't!" Honey gasped, whilst Parker stared at the man helping the other woman to her feet. Honey's eyes skipped over Alex's and found that of the Healer, Sunday. "You'll die!"

Alex glanced at Sunday, then back to Honey. "Why's that, Honey?"

"They gave her the serum," Parker cut in.

Alex scratched the back of his neck. "Who did, Miss Parker?"

"No idea," she growled.

He nodded. "Sure, I see that. I see that. You don't know. I should know. Stupid Alex. Sunday, take a break. I'll holler you when I need you."

Sunday nodded silently and walked away.

"Has someone seen Honey today? Someone from here?"

"Jane Araldo and some guy who didn't give his name," Parker said.

"Yeah. I see. Jane and some guy who didn't give his name. He's the one they'll be wanting. They don't like him anymore. So you definitely saw Jane do her Healer thing?"

"I... I don't know," Parker spat.

"You know what I think happened here?" Alex nodded, then added, "I think they want this guy dead. I don't think Jane did anything, she just put on a big show. She's Tower through and through. A loyal puppet. She'd do anything they tell her. Honey," he caught Honey's eyes, "I'm sorry, sweetheart. Do you want something for the pain? You know we can't do anything, don't you?"

"I'm sorry!" Honey whispered.

"No. It's not your fault, Hon. I should be having words with my mother about this. Serious words. You see, Honey, we don't have a Healer. We don't got one. We had one, oh sure. Caught the unfortunate end of a bomb. Kaboom! Barb was mad that day, I can tell you. Shot some people, I guess. Didn't do much to improve her mood though, seeing as our Healer was still dead and all she had then was a half dozen bleeding, shot-up Sweepers. We don't have the money for another Healer. Barb just likes to say we pulled the moolah together to look flash in front of her Tower buddies. She's lying through her teeth. She sent _me_ here to find _you_, Honey. She thought you'd sold us out for Dulaine-Mercer. But you didn't, did you, Hon?"

"Dulaine-Mercer... are a sh... shell compa... ny... They're not..."

Alex nodded. "I know, Honey. I'm sorry. I should have seen it earlier. You're a good operative. It was remiss of me." He leant over and hugged her, not caring about the blood. "It's inexcusable," he said. "What else? What else, Honey? Why are you sick like this? They didn't just give you the AH serum, did they? Can't have? Got to be something else. Is there _anything_ you can remember?"

Honey coughed, blood leaking from between her fingers.

Parker noticed that the dining hall was suddenly empty. They were the only people about. Broots was nowhere to be seen.

Alex took Honey's hand and wiped it on his shirt, frowning at her fingernails. "I see. They wanted to cover that up, did they? Honey, can you look at me please?" He lifted her chin with a hand. "There we go." He looked at her eyes. "Honey, this isn't the AH serum, or even a prototype. It's the Sickness."

Parker's eyes widened in horror. She swore. "Tell me you're fucking kidding me, Alex?" she demanded.

"I'm afraid not, Mel," he replied, with a heavy sigh. "This... this is not amusing."

Parker laughed. "What can we do? Is there some kind of antidote?"

"No. I suspect this is an altered strain. In the past, people could live perfectly normal lives with the Sickness, if it was left undisturbed by Healer hands. It was one of its more deadly features. Someone would come in with, say, a broken leg and they'd leave... well, they wouldn't leave. In the larger majority of cases, any attempts at Healing activated the Sickness in its host and killed both the carrier and the attending Healer. Later, there was attempts made to modify the Sickness, to make it so that the carrier survived, which is where we got the AH serum. But this isn't... this isn't the same. It's the Sickness. Definitely a strain we haven't seen before. It's attacking Honey without provocation. It's a goer." He nodded to Parker. "Where's your brother these days. He was studying the Sickness. I had the feeling they were thinking of hooking up a team of science types with a sample of this... ugly stuff. We don't know much about it. It was all quite long ago. I guess they were hoping exposure to the information they had might trip something in Noah's upgrades and let them in on something they didn't already know. He about?"

Parker sighed heavily. She nodded to Honey.

Alex frowned. "Honey, sweetheart, do you know where Lyle is?"

"That is Lyle!" Parker hissed. "Honey's smoked. Ended! That's not bloody Honey, it's Lyle! Some idiot from T-Corp whacked him and the Tower thought it would be a clever idea to lend him this dead girl's body."

"That's unfortunate," Alex said. "I quite liked Honey. You won't last much longer in that body, I fear."

Honey gasped for breath, tears spilling out of her eyes. She brushed the back of a shaking hand over her mouth, not so much wiping away the blood as smearing it further. "I'm sorry!" she whispered, and turned to Parker abruptly and kissed her.

Parker flailed her arms about for a horrified moment before she found purchase on Honey's shoulders. Just when she was about to give the other woman one almighty shove Honey jerked back from her, her eyes rolling in her head, and her head snapped back, a bright, white light passing over her eyes, and then it was tumbling out of her, filling every corner of the room and spilling into the adjoining rooms. Parker was instantly blinded, but the light didn't sting her eyes. It was like trying to see through soup to the bottom of the bowl. The air felt strangely zingy, sort of fuzzy. Parker tried not to think about the tingling in her lips. She wasn't going to die, even if she'd copped a mouthful of Honey's poisoned blood. The Mysterious Healer wouldn't _let_ her die!

Parker reached out a hand blindly to touch Honey – she was close, she could remember that much – but she felt nothing. And then the light evaporated and a loud crash announced that Honey had returned to earth. Parker backed away sharply, afraid that the woman was dead. Blood trailed out of her mouth, her eyes were staring and very wide.

"Honey was the Mysterious Healer?" Alex frowned. "No. That doesn't sound right. That's crazy. Who would want to kill the Mysterious Healer?"

Parker's blood ran cold. She lifted a hand to cover her mouth but didn't breathe a single word. She could think of a couple candidates right off the bat. T-Corp, the _Centre_. If the Mysterious Healer really was freelance and couldn't be bought, the only other option was bumping him off, in their eyes. They couldn't have someone with those kind of abilities roaming around freely, messing up their plans at the drop of a hat.

Alex walked over and glanced at her, checking out her eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"Alive. I think."

"I don't think poor Honey here was the Mysterious Healer," Alex told her. "I think the Tower unleashed this thing for a very specific reason, the same reason they gave your brother Honey's body. Honey was patient zero, in this case. They had a good suspicion that the Mysterious Healer would try to fix this and they thought they'd just quietly insert an Empath able to track he or she. What they didn't count on was that Honey would die, that the effort involved in processing all of that energy would kill her, and with her, your brother. This is... this is out there, even for the Tower. It's wrong. If this thing hadn't gone down as planned they'd have... I... I..."

Parker shook her head. "They don't care, Alex. They don't fucking care." She snapped her fingers. "Snap out of it." And since when did he?

She turned away, walking to Honey's side and kneeling down beside her. "Do you think they could Heal her?"

"Even if they could," Alex replied, "there's nobody home. Honey is long gone. Your brother probably too, if he's not..."

"Not what?" Parker asked.

"Fizzled out," Alex replied honestly.

"They... killed his spirit?"

"I honestly hope not, Miss Parker, but... who knows? When you have two energy sources interacting, one of them's gonna come out the sorer. You saw the energy expenditure involved in that campaign, and I'm guessing what we saw was just the tip of the iceberg, in this case. That was... powerful. Massive! Spirits have their own unique energy signature, but we have no idea how strong it is because it exists in more than one dimension, as it were. Its true nature is hidden from us, at this juncture. I don't think they're going to be getting their answers today."

"No!"

"Mel, I don't see what chance-"

"He kissed me!" she hissed. "He kissed me because I'm his twin. Our DNA is similar. I know who the Mysterious Healer is!"

"I'm listening," Alex replied.

"It was Lyle!" she breathed.

Alex frowned. "I've got to admit, Mel, sometimes you stump me. How do you figure?"

"It... it just makes sense." It _did_ make sense.

"You're really hung up on that kiss, aren't you?"

Parker stared at him like she'd been slapped. "No!"

"Empaths. They're interesting characters. I don't think Lyle had anything to do with the Mysterious Healer, personally. His kids have never shown any tendencies toward Healing; not his daughter, not Reagan Parker. What I do think is that Lyle knew what was going to happen. It was just 'goodbye', that's all."

"Why aren't you jumping on this?" Parker asked.

"You're too adorable, Miss Parker. I know you're only trying to help but you're on the wrong track here, baby."

Parker stared at him.

"Trust me," Alex said.

She sighed heavily. "I need to find Jarod, Alex! Lyle can't be gone. He's the only one who knows what happened to Jarod!"

"I can appreciate your dedication to your work, Miss Parker, but..." He shook his head. "The Mysterious Healer's good. Clearly. But Lyle is more than likely kaput and I don't see how the Mysterious Healer can help us find Jarod."

"I didn't say that!"

"And I heard you, Miss Parker. Lyle is the only one who knows, but we don't have Lyle. We have..." He glanced at Honey with concern. "We have a corpse, and that's about all."

The Chairman stormed in with a team of Tower personnel, several Empaths in tow. He ignored Parker and Alex but nodded to a couple of Tower Sweepers.

Out of the blue, something clicked into place in Parker's thinking. She knew her worst fear was coming into play now; Emily wasn't getting out of this unscathed. "You can't do that!" she shouted suddenly, leaping for the Chairman angrily. She was pulled back by two Sweepers. "You leave Emily out of this! If you hurt that baby, I'll fucking kill you!"

"I'm afraid you won't be killing anybody," the Chairman replied. "You're trouble, Mel Parker. Unwanted trouble. I'm afraid that the only thing you'll be doing is-"

"Run!" Alex whispered, stepping in front of her quickly.

Everything happened very fast then. A rush of heat seared just under her skin and the Sweepers let go of her as if burnt. She turned without thought and just ran. She didn't want to think about Alex getting himself shot for her. That was much too un-Alex-like. It didn't compute in her mind. She ran blindly, shooting anyone who got in her way with the intention of stopping her. She had to find Emily and get her out. She couldn't let them get their hands on Aretha. If they got her, they'd get the Mysterious Healer for sure.

She ran until her lungs burned and then, just as the corridor flooded with Sweepers, she burst into flames.

She had the feeling that kiss hadn't agreed with her.

The agony-filled screams of nine Sweepers, burning alive, said she was probably onto something. She shivered.

.

She wasn't sure how she found Emily or how they made it out of there, but when they did there was Broots, just waiting with a car to get gone. And Sunday was with him. If she wasn't a Healer, Parker wondered what she was. Alex had said she was a Healer – had implied she was, anyway – but he'd also said Alabama didn't have any Healers. He'd said Barb had sent _him_ here; he'd never said anything about Sunday. She glanced at the young woman, at her wide eyes, so much like Bobby's, and it hit her.

Aretha!

"How you two doing back there?" Sunday asked.

Parker glanced at Emily.

"It's okay," Emily told Sunday quietly.

"I don't think Daddy made it," Sunday said.

"Yes." Emily looked at her hands.

"I'm sorry, Mommy."

"Nonsense," Emily whispered, tears making her eyes sparkly.

Parker looked at Emily, trying to catch her eye. It struck her that Emily was better now. When the Mysterious Healer had Healed all those people who were sick, he'd Healed Emily too.

Emily looked around and saw her watching her. "I'm sorry."

"He kissed me," Parker whispered.

Emily nodded as though she wasn't really listening, too caught up in her own emotions.

"What if-"

"It's a nice thought, Aunt Melody," Sunday said, from the front, "but I don't think so, darlin'. I don't think it gets to work like that. He couldn't leave Honey's body. He couldn't Heal those people if he wasn't connected to them in some way. Through Honey's body, I suppose. But I think you're right: he kissed you because he was in someone else's body, not his own. He needed... he needed the kick-start. You're not just related genetically, you're also strongly connected to his body, Empathically-speaking. That's why, um, with the kissing. It's an old Empath trick of his. Hence, the reason he's kissed a lot of strange people. I mean..." She shrugged. "A lot of people find that shocking, someone just up and kissing them out of the blue. The shock, and the adrenalin, help unblock some pathways or something that helps with the Empathic connection. So it's easier to get a Read on people, easier to share stuff with them, you name it."

Share stuff, Parker thought. Or trip stuff, press buttons. Lyle always liked pressing buttons, even when he bloody shouldn't have been. That was why her abilities had suddenly kicked into overdrive, she was certain of it.

Sitting back in her seat, she suppressed a heavy sigh and waited, just let the time pass. She didn't know what was going to happen next, but she knew she was just going to have to wait and see, head it off when it became apparent.

What else could she do?


End file.
